The Speed Of Falling Sakura Petals
by Infatuation-x
Summary: “Did you know that the speed of falling Sakura petals is 5 centimeters per second?” Kairi told Sora. “Wouldn’t it be nice to watch the cherry blossoms together again?” With a twist of events, both were separated. Will they be able to meet again? ONESHOT.


**My first ONESHOT. A Japanese Anime inspired me to make this ONESHOT. **

**DISCLAIMER: If I own Kingdom Hearts, Xion would be with Roxas and both would live happily ever after. :D OF COURSE I DON'T OWN THE MOVIE, I'm just using the plot. **

**Summary: "Did you know that the speed of falling Sakura is 5 centimeters per second?" Kairi told Sora. "Wouldn't it be nice to watch the cherry blossoms together again?" With a twist of events, both were separated. Will they be able to meet again? ONESHOT. Based on a Japanese Anime Movie**.

The Speed of Falling Sakura Petals

"Hey, they say it's 5 centimeters per second," Kairi told her BBF, Sora, as she looked at the falling cherry blossom petals.

"Hmm? What?" Sora asked.

"The speed at which cherry blossoms petals fall. 5 centimeters per second," Kairi explained, tugging her long auburn hair back behind her ears.

"Hmm… You seem to know a lot, Kairi," Sora said.

"Hey… Doesn't it somehow resemble snow?" Kairi asked, thrusting her hand out to catch a falling cherry blossom petal.

Before Sora could even reply, Kairi started running.

Sora ran too but was unable to catch up. "Kairi! Wait up!" he yelled. Kairi tightened her grip on her umbrella and continued to run. She ran across the railway tracks just before the barrier was put down. Sora knew he was unable to cross so he stopped. "Kairi!" he yelled. Kairi stopped, opened her umbrella and twirled around on her spot. Smiling to Sora, she yelled back "Sora! Next year, wouldn't it be nice to watch the cherry blossoms together again?"

Just after Kairi finished her question, the train past by, cutting their view. That day was the last time she was able to watch the cherry blossoms fall with Sora. She really wished she was able to stay longer.

--

**(A/N) Words that are underlined represented what Kairi wrote to Sora in a letter. **

"Dear Sora, I'm really sorry for not having contacted you in a while," 

Sora opened up his mailbox and took out a light pink envelope.

"It's hot during the summer over here… however, it's much cooler than Twilight Town." 

Sora hid the letter under his textbooks and occasionally took it out to read.

"But come to think of it, I still prefer the sweltering summers in Twilight Town."

He tapped his pencil on the table, thinking of what he was going to write in his reply to Kairi. Scratching his head, he sighed dejectedly.

"The asphalt which looks as though it might melt, the shimmering high-rise buildings in the distance, and the overly-cold-air-conditioning in the department stores and subway and the haunted mansion with the seven mysteries." 

Sora reread Kairi's letter, making sure that he understood completely what she had wrote.

--

At last, school's over. Sora quickly packed his bag and ran to the field for his Track and Field practices.

"We last met at the primary school graduation ceremony. It's been half a year since then. Hey… Kairi. Do you still remember me?"

The word, "Do you still remember me" rang in Sora's head. "Of course, I remember," he muttered to himself as he sat on the ground, droplets of sweat trickled down his face.

--

_A few days later…_

"Greetings to you Sora!"

Sora opened his mailbox and smiled at the same light pink envelope he received a few days ago. He placed it carefully into his file, zipped his bag, and ran to school.

"Thanks for the reply, I was really happy about it!" 

After school, Sora was seen sitting in one of the chairs in the classroom.

"It'll soon be autumn. The autumn leaves here are beautiful. Yesterday I dug out my first sweater of the year. Kinda weird that I'm telling you this, huh?"

"Sora," Namine said, as she and Olette walked towards him.

"Hi Namine, and Olette. What's up?" he looked up from the letter and grinned at both of them.

"The ceiling." Namine muttered. "The ceiling's ALWAYS up."

"What's that?" Olette pointed at the letter. "Is that a love letter?"

Namine gasped. "W-What?"

"T-That's not it," Sora blushed a little as he folded the letter carefully, putting it back into the envelope and placed it into his bag. "Just a letter from an important friend."

"Anyway, I'm sorry for leaving you to help me do the paperwork." Namine apologized.

Smiling, Sora said, "It's ok. It'll be finished soon."

Namine's face filled with sadness as she forced herself to ask "Is it true that you're transferring?"

Sora's smile faded, nodding he said, "Yes. During the third semester."

"Where to?" Namine asked.

"To Radiant Garden. Parent's job."

"Is that so… It'll be lonely then." Namine said.

"Club activities have recently started earlier in the morning. That's why I'm writing this letter on the train. I just had a haircut recently. It has become short enough to see my ears."

Sora took Kairi's letter out and continued reading.

"If we do meet up, you'll probably won't be able to recognize me right?"

Sora sat on his desk, a notepad in front of him. He clicked his pen and tapped his forehead as he thought of what to write to Kairi. The notepad only has one sentence: "Dear Kairi, My Best Friend."

"You are also changing bit by bit, aren't you?"

--

"Salutations, Sora-kun! The cold weather continues. How are you? It's been snowing here endlessly. Ugh, sometimes I absolutely love it, but at other times I absolutely detest it. Weird, huh? But of course I have my reasons…"

Sora switched on the lights of his new classroom.

"I had to wear really thick clothes to school because of that. But on a lighter note, snow is fun! Anyway, it hasn't started snowing in Twilight Town right? I haven't got used to the move." 

He sat on his table and took out his notepad, writing a letter back to Kairi.

"That's why I've been watching Twilight's Town weather forecast too." 

--

"It hasn't been raining, huh?" Sora said, as he rested on one of the chairs near the track. "Hey, have you guys been to Destiny Island?"

"Destiny Island?" Roxas repeated, cocking an eyebrow.

"Huh?" Riku, sitting beside Roxas, asked.

"Destiny Island." Sora said. _Destiny Island… It's where she lives…_

"Nope. Never been there, never heard about it before." Riku said.

"How am I going to get there?" Sora asked.

"Take the train, duh. Common sense, Sora." Riku said.

"It's kinda far isn't it?" Sora muttered to himself.

--

"I was pretty shocked when I heard you're going to transfer this time. Have we become used to transferring schools from having done it for so long?" 

Sora entered a bookshop and looked for a guidebook. He needed one to travel around Radiant Garden. As soon as he saw what he needed, he snatched it off the bookshelves and went to pay for it.

"Even still… to transfer to Radiant Garden… it's pretty far away, isn't it?" 

Maps and guidebooks were sprawled across Sora's desk. His guidebooks had several dog-ears on it.

"When the time comes, it will no longer be a distance which would allow us to just get on a train and meet each other."

Sora took a red pen, uncapped it and started to trace the train's railway lines on the map. Starting from Twilight Town and stopping at Destiny Island. And he smiled.

"As I thought… It's going to be a little lonely. By all means I wish you the best of health."

--

"Good day to you, Sora. I'm really happy about the promise to meet up on the 4th of March. A year has passed since we last met. Somehow I feel nervous about it. There's a huge cherry blossom tree near my house. During Spring, that's probably where the cherry petals fall at 5 centimeters per second. Wouldn't it be nice if I could stay with you until Spring comes?But…that's what I think. Maybe you just wanna sit back and relax?" 

Kairi reread her letter one more time, checking for spelling or grammar mistakes. After reading it, she sighed and placed the letter on her lap.

The next night, Sora's head fell onto his desk with a loud "thud" as he was spending the whole night writing a long letter that he was going to give it to Kairi when he met her. Jolting awake, he winced in pain, rubbed his forehead sourly, and then continued to muse over what to write.

--

"The weather forecast says that snow will be coming." Sora's mother said.

"Eh… I thought it was getting cold. It's March already after all." Sora's father said.

Meanwhile, Sora was in his room, folding the letter he wrote and slipping it into an envelope. On his desk was a piece of paper that wrote approximately what time he would reach each station. The last line wrote "Destiny Island train station. 7.00pm."

Little did Sora know that what his parents said was true about the snow…

--

_After school that day._

"Sora, let's go for club activities." Roxas said, as he pushed the sliding door.

"Oh." Sora replied. "I'm sorry… I don't think I can make it today."

"Because of the moving preparations?" Roxas asked.

"Something like that." Sora said, "Sorry."

"It's a great help that you'll be coming to my local station, but… since it's a long journey, please be careful."

Sora ran to the lockers where his shoes were and immediately bolted out of the school once he tied his shoelaces.

"As promised, I will be waiting for you at the Cherry Blossom tree just outside of the station at 7pm."

--

Sora reached the train station and boarded the train. All the seats were taken, so he had no choice but to stand up. Looking at his watch, it wrote "3.54pm". _I think I'll reach Destiny Island on time._ He thought.

--

**From now on underlined words show what Sora was thinking in the present and italics are flashbacks. Words that are not in italics or underlined represented what was happening presently. **

On that promised day with Kairi, it started snowing after midday. 

"_Sora! Look!" Kairi kneeled down. "It's a moogle… It's Chobi!"_

_Smiling, she stroked Chobi's back. "Chobi? He's the one that is always around, isn't he?"_

"_But he looks lonely today," Kairi said. "What happened to Mimi?__" She paused to look around for Mimi, but she was nowhere to be seen. She sighed. "__ It__ feels__ lonely by yourself right?"_

_--_

_In the fastfood restaurant Sora placed his tray on the table and asked "How's the book?"_

"_Very absorbing. I read it throu__gh the whole__ night!" Kairi replied. _

"_Where did you read to?" _

"_Until the part when the Unbirths emerged." __Silence ensued for the two to absorb the information, and when they did, they snapped their fingers stimultaneously._

"_The Keyblade Wars period!" Both said in unison, and then laughed. _

"_I like the Heartless… they looked like this." Kairi said, as she placed tissues on the table and took some of the fries out and began arranging them into the shape of what she thought the Heartless looked like. _

"_Well, it looks similar I guess." Sora complimented__. The brunette picked up some of the fries and chewed on it as though it was the last few in the world._

_Kairi smiled, as she took the remaining fries and placed it on her plate. __"__Which war hero did you like, Sora__?" she asked__._

"_Ventum and Aqua I guess." _

I think Kairi and I were somewhat similar in our thoughts and feelings. One year after I transferred to Twilight Town, Kairi transferred to the same class. We were still small and sickly at that time, so we preferred the library over the playground.

"_Hey. You love to read books right?" Kairi asked Sora. _

"_Y-Yeah. I c__o__me here practically everyday." He said. "I s__ee__ you here most of the times. You love books too, don't you?"_

_Kairi nodded. Grinning, she grabbed Sora's hands and said "Let's be friends! __I'll introduce myself!" She spun around for the young boy to see her appearance from the side and back. Her pleated skirt twirled as she spun. "I'm Kairi!"_

_Sora smiled. "I'm S-Sora."_

That's why we came to naturally become friends. Because of that, we were teased by our classmates. 

_Xion stood in front of the classroom,__with__ multiple pairs of eyes staring at her. She stared at blackboard. On it wrote, "SORA and KAIRI HARHAR." And "SOKAI" scribbled in the middle of a big red heart. __Kairi, holding back tears tried forcefully to grab the chalk Xion was holding, but failed miserably. Biting her lip, she kneeled on the floor and started sobbing._

But…

_Seconds later, Sora stepped into the classroom. His fac__ial__ expression turned to shock when he saw what was written on the board__, and Kairi's tear-stained face._

Strangely, when we were together, we weren't too perturbed by those things.

_Running to the board, he snatched the duster angrily and erased the heart. After that he grabbed Kairi's hand, pulling her away from the classroom__. Kairi rubbed away all the tears from her face, and smiled. _

"_Thanks, Sora!"_

We eventually started commuting to the same secondary school. We would be together from then onwards. For some reason, that's what I thought. 

"Disney Castle. Disney Castle. This is a terminal station. Disembarking passengers, please transfer to the Destiny Island or Radiant Garden line." The speakers said. Sora stepped out of the train and walked hastily towards the blue line.

It was my first time coming to Disney Castle station by myself. It would also be my first time taking the railway lines from here onwards. My heart was beating quickly. I will be meeting Kairi after this. 

--

The train that Sora had just transferred to was even more packed then before.

"We will be arriving at Halloween Town shortly. Repeat: Halloween Town."

Sora placed his hands in his windbreaker's pocket, feeling the letter that was placed in it before he left the school.

"At the next station Halloween Town, we will be waiting for the express train… In order to wait for the arrival of the express, this train will be stopping here for four minutes." It was 5 minutes to 5 then.

"Customers who are in a hurry to reach The World That Never Was and Castle Oblivion are advised to…"

Sora suddenly recalled of the day that Kairi called him about her transferring to another school.

_Kairi stood outside of the telephone booth, hesitating whether she's going to call Sora or not. Clenching up her fists, she pulled the door opened and slotted in a few coins. _

_Sora's mother picked the phone up. _

"_Um… It's Kairi." Tightening her grip on the telephone cord, she said, "Is Sora there?_

"_Hold on," Sora's mother said, as she brought the cordless phone to Sora's room. _

"_Sora, It's Kairi." She told her son. Smiling at Kairi's name, he took the phone from his mother happily. _

_--_

"_Huh? Transferring?" Sora said, shocked. "What about Twilight Secondary School? We worked so hard to get accepted."_

"_My parents say I have to go to Destiny High…" Kairi said, trying very hard not to cry. "I-I'm s-sorry."_

"_No… It's not something you need to apologize about…" Sora said, his head down._

"_I told them to let me commute from my aunt's place, but…" Kairi stopped, tears forming up in her eyes. "They told me I couldn't do it until I was older. _

"_I got it, It's ok." Sora said, as he pulled his kness nearer to him. "I-It's O-okay."_

"_I'm sorry," Kairi apologized, sobbing. _

I remembered that I was pushing the telephone's receiver so hard that my ears hurt. I understood perfectly that Kairi had been hurt, but… I couldn't do anything about it. 

--

At the transfer station's terminal, it started to become crowded with people returning home from work. Everyone's shoes were wet from soaking in the water from the snow. The air was… infused with the unique smell of a snowy day in a city, and was cold. 

"Attention please, all passengers. The train on the Atlantica line, headed towards Wonderland and Traverse Town, will be arriving around 8 minutes late due to the snow. We offer our sincerest apologies to passengers who are in a hurry."

Sora looked at his watch for the hundredth time. "5.15…" He whispered, holding onto the note that he made at home in which the estimated arrival of each train station were written on it.

Until that moment, the possibility that the trains could be delayed had not crossed my mind. My uneasiness suddenly increased. 

--

The train rocked side to side as the speaker spoke, "Due to the snow, this train is currently around 10 minutes late. Our sincerest apologies to those who were in a hurry to catch this train."

A little while after we passed Traverse Town, in the blink of an eye, the buildings in the scenery became sparse. 

Everything outside the window was dipped in white. Sora took his note out and glanced at his watch again. "5.54pm."

At last the train reached Agrabah. "Our sincerest apologies for the late arrival to this station. Passengers transferring to Neverland line, please approach the number 5 exit."

Almost all the passengers alighted the train. Sora was… all alone in the cabin. He put his note down and sighed.

"Due to the train being delayed, this train will be stopping here for 10 minutes. We offer our sincerest apologies for the trouble we causing to passengers in a hurry."

--

After what seems like eternity, the train alighted at Olympus Coliseum.

"Olympus Coliseum. Olympus Coliseum. We offer our sincerest apologies to our passengers. Due to the delays of the following train, this train will be temporarily stopping here." The remaining passengers alighted except Sora. Now… he was all alone in the train. "We offer our sincerest and deepest apologies to passengers in a hurry."

The time it took to go from station to station was unbelievably long. And the train stopped at each station for an unbelievably long time. 

He looked up at the railway map above him. "Four more stops. Castle of Dreams, Yen Sid Castle, Beast's castle and finally, Destiny Island."

Pulling up his sleeves, he looked at his watch again. It just struck 7pm.

The invisible winter wasteland outside the window. The flowing of time. The painful hunger pangs. All these things gradually wore down my heart. 

Throwing his back onto one of the seats, he sat down.

The promised time came and went. By this time, Kairi must have started worrying. 

Pulling out the letter he wrote. The one he was going to give it to Kairi personally was tad bit crumpled.

On that day… that day the phone call came. The fact that I could not offer Kairi even a single word of kindness, even thought she was beset by a far greater sadness that I was is something that I was very ashamed of. 

_On primary school graduation day, in the middle of the hallway, stood Sora and Kairi. _

_Silence overwhelmed both of them and then Kairi started talking, "Erm… It's goodbye for us today." _

_Sora__, trying hard not to cry, turned his __ head turned away from Kairi, face filled with sorrow and sadness._

Kairi's first letter arrived half a year after that, during the summer of my first secondary year. I remember everything she wrote in that letter. 2 weeks before today, the promised date. I wrote the letter that I was going to give her in person. Things that I couldn't tell Kairi, things that I wanted her to hear: in truth, I had a lot of them. 

"We sincerely apologize for the trouble. In a moment, this train will start moving towards Castle of Dreams."

--

"Yen Sid Castle. Yen Sid Castle."

Sora looked at his watch again, with his note in his the other hand. "7.45pm." Frustrated, Sora let out a groan and crushed the note.

"Excuse me lad," the train officer said, "This train will be stopping here. You might want to catch the next train to Beast's Castle at the red platform."

Sora widened his eyes and bolted out of the train. He ran to the red platform.

"Attention please passengers. The Blue line is currently suffering from a major operational delay. We are terribly sorry for the trouble. Until such time please wait for the next train at the Red Line towards Beast's Castle."

Panting, Sora looked at the clock above him. It was 5 minutes before it stuck 8pm.

In any case, I have no choice but to forge forward to the station where Kairi is waiting. 

Sora pulled his hoodie up and covered his head, revealing only some of his brown gravity-defying spiky hair. He folded his arms and leaned on a pillar as the wind blew even harder this time. He sighed and saw a can drinks machine. He walked towards it and looked at the drinks available on display. Putting his hand into his pocket, he pulled out his wallet. At the same time, the letter which was in the same pocket was taken out and blown away by the strong wind.

Sora, obviously flabbergasted, looked at the letter being blown further and further away from him. His precious letter. The letter he was going to give Kairi. The letter that he had taken the whole day to write. It was all gone… gone… with the wind. He lowered his head, feeling very dispirited and started to cry.

"No…"

"Dear passengers. We're sincerely sorry for the delay. The train going to Destiny Island is alighting at Red Platform. Please stand behind the white line."

--

"Why must fate really go against me?" Sora murmured, thinking about those delays and about the letter.

Suddenly the train stopped AGAIN.

"Attention please, passengers, due to the current snowstorm, this train will be temporarily stopping. We apologize for the inconvenience caused. We are currently unable to provide a time for the resumption of service."

Sora was even gloomier than just now. He pulled up his sleeves; his watch shows "8.54pm".

Exasperated, he unstrapped his watch and placed it on the table.

The letter Kairi wrote 'Sora, are you well?', '…I'm currently writing it on the train.' For some reason, the Kairi I imagine from the letters was always alone. Just like that… the train ended up stopping there without a sound for nearly two hours. Every minute felt like an eternity. Time, clearly as if it had a malicious intent, slowly ebbed away above me. I clenched my teeth and keep myself from crying was the only thing I could do. 

Kairi…

Please… just…

"10.20pm" the watch wrote.

Return…

Return home already...!

--

By the time I reached Destiny Island train station, it was a quarter pass 11pm. Kairi must have gone home by then. 

Sora decided to check out Cherry Blossom tree that Kairi said, which was near the Train Station. Once he had stepped out of the train station, he didn't expect the weather to be so cold.

Kairi must have gone home because of the extremely cold and chilly weather. But… to my surprise, I saw her sitting under the tree. 

"Kai--" Sora started to say, but stopped. Lowering his head, he walked slowly towards Kairi.

Finally he stopped in front of Kairi. "Kairi…" He whispered at the auburn hair girl in front of him, who had her arms wrapped around her body tightly.

The girl, upon hearing her name, looked up and stared at Sora's eyes. Sobbing, she tugged on Sora's coat and started crying. Sora, too, cried as he was touched that Kairi was willing to wait for him.

--

"Do you know what tree is this?" Kairi asked.

"The tree from the letter you wrote?" He said.

"Yes! The cherry blossom tree!"

Sora and Kairi stared at the tree before them, the branches bare, not even a leaf in sight.

"Hey," Kairi pulled her hand out, "Doesn't is somehow resemble the cherry petals?"

On her hand, a snowflake landed on it. Sora looked at her and said, "Yes. It does."

Kairi smiled and put her hand down. As both Sora and Kairi stared at each other, Sora suddenly has the urge of kissing Kairi.

The red-haired girl smiled, as she hugged him. She brought her face closer to his, and as Sora held her closer to him she felt a surge of warmth pulsing through her body.

Sora grazed his cheek against hers, and he placed one hand on her cheek, while the other held her head in position. "Warm enough for you?" he asked jokingly, and the two grinned at each other.

"Not yet, Sora." Kairi whispered as she grazed her lips against his. Sora slowly pulled her head towards his, and his lips took in hers for a kiss.

In that moment, the dwelling place of eternity, hearts and souls… became clear to me. It was as if I understood everything that had happened in my life these thirteen years and… the time which was to come. I became unbearably… sad. Kairi's warmth, her spirit, how should I treat them, where can I bring them? That was something I did not know. That we could not be together forever after this was a fact I nearly grasped. 

The vast lives we had ahead of us. The boundless amount of time which laid unavoidably stretched out in front of us. But… the anxieties which I had caught sight of soon melted away. And after that, only Kairi's tender lips remained. 

We would be together, wouldn't we?

**Please REVIEW as a New Year Present for me! Of course this ONESHOT of mine is almost similar to the movie. It's just that I cut it short. :D I hope you like it. If you want to know what movie this is, feel free to ask me! :D**


End file.
